Love Thy Neighbor
by Mary Without Sound
Summary: When a shooting literally hits close to home for one CSI, will he be able to crack the case and keep a level head? contains a couple curse words
1. Voletta Greenbow

Disclaimer- The only thing I own is the story, the characters and such belong to CBS.

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Nick Stokes gives out a gasp of shock as he hears a gunshot ring out from the house next door. His minds races as he grabs his gun and cell phone. He dials 911 as he makes his way down the front steps of his apartment and crosses the small patch of grass between his house and the house next door.

He finishes giving his location to the dispatcher and places his cell in his pocket. "Las Vegas CSI! Come out with your hands in the air!" he yells as he forces his way into the main entrance of the house.

"Help! Call 911! She shot me!" Nick hears from down the hallway to his left. He makes his way down the hallway with his weapon drawn in case the suspect is still in the home.

"Ma'am, I have already alerted the police and they are on their way. Is the person who shot you still in the house?" Nick finally reaches the victim, an elderly woman lie bleeding on the floor holding her side.

"I don't know." She struggles to respond. She reaches up a blood soaked hand at Nick as he tries to walk past her to secure the area. "Please don't leave me here to die" she pleaded.

"Ma'am, I need to see if the suspect is still here. I promise I will come back. Ok?" Nick looks down at her small haggard frame and anger starts to fester in him for whoever could do this to such an elderly woman.

"Ok." She returns her stained hand to her wound and curls her petite little body into a ball on the hardwood floor.

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Gil Grissom and Warrick Brown turn down a street they have been down many times before. This time was different, this time it wasn't for a party or dinner at Nick's apartment, it was to process a scene. The giant black SUV pulls up next to a Las Vegas Patrol car and comes to a stop. Warrick climbs out and grabs his kit before Gil can even get his keys out of the ignition.

"Voletta Greenbow, 79 years old, shot in the right side by an unidentified woman. Vic is on the way to the hospital. Nick is already inside." Jim Brass informs the CSI's while they walk to the front door that Nick entered just a short while ago.

"Nick is in there?" Warrick looks at Brass with shock. "Was he involved?" worry takes him over as he looks to Brass for an answer.

"He heard the shot and called the police. He secured the area and talked to the victim until the medics got here. He isn't injured that I know of. I don't even think he saw the suspect." Brass turns to Grissom. "The vic wanted him to ride with her to the hospital but he told her he was going to stay here and find out who did this to her."

"Thanks Jim." Gil said as he entered the building and began building the evidence in his mind. Warrick blows past Gil and walks up to Nick who is kneeling over the puddle of blood that came from the veins of his neighbor.

"Man, are you ok?" Warrick stood directly behind him as he slowly stood erect and turned to face his co-worker.

"Yeah, I think so. I just can't imagine why someone would shoot such a sweet old lady." Nick clenches his teeth and thumps his fist on his hip.

"Nick, I am not so sure that you should work this case." Grissom says while putting on his rubber gloves and un-capping a swab.

"We can call Greg or Sara if we need help" Warrick added as he started taking pictures of the large crimson spot on the floor by Nick's feet.

"No way, I held that lady's hand and promised her that I would catch the woman that did this to her! I am not backing out. I just need to go to my place and get my kit." Nick shoved past Grissom and stormed out the door.

"Well, I guess there will be no objectivity from him." Gil says with a sideways glance at Warrick.

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"Hey Nicky, I am sorry to hear about your neighbor. Do they know how bad it is yet?" Sara Sidle inquires from the couch in the break room.

"She is in a coma right now, they don't think that she will wake up. They got the bullet out, Bobby has it." Nick pours himself a cup of the stale coffee from the pot on the counter. He rubs his head as he sits and waits for Grissom to appear in the doorway to let him know that their test results are back.

Instead Greg Sanders's head pops into view walking down the hallway. He does a little spin before he makes his grand entrance into the room to take his usual place next to his precious Blue Hawaiian coffee that he was about to brew. He takes one look at Nick's yawning face and bags under his eyes and asks, "Busy night Nicky?" Sara motions for Greg to stop talking, but he doesn't see her. His eyes are trained on Nick, and he isn't going to go unanswered. "Seriously Nick, you look like hell, what happened?"

"You obviously just got here." Catherine Willow's voice fills the room from the doorway. "Nick's neighbor got shot last night. He saved her." Catherine turns a bright grin at Nick to hopefully cheer him up a little.

Greg's face falls into a shocked expression as he sits on the arm of the chair across from Nick. "You saved her? That is really awesome Nick!" He pulses with enthusiasm at the good deed his friend had done.

"I didn't save her. I just talked to her before the ambulance got there." Nick shoots down any attempt to make him sound like a hero.

"That means more that you think it does." Catherine says in her motherly tone while she unfolds the newspaper and pulls out a section.

"Yeah man, that woman might have died right there if you hadn't kept her talking." Warrick adds from his position by Sara on the couch.

"Listen guys, I know that you are trying to cheer me up, but you can stop now. Don't make me out to be a hero when I didn't even catch the suspect." Nick retorts with a snarl and stands up. "I am going to go wait with Bobby for my bullet results, let Gris know where I am."

The other four investigators share looks of concern with each other as they let Nick walk out the door and make his way down the hallway to the ballistics lab.

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CSI Stokes stands at the side of the table at the morgue. The body of Voletta Greenbow lay cold and lifeless in front of him.

"Nick, I need to move her, Sara just called and she has four bodies coming in. We have done all we can to get evidence from her." Dr. Al Robbins places his free hand on Nick's shoulder while his other hand secures his position with his cane.

"Can I have just one more minute?"

"Of Course" Doc Robbins replied with a pat on the young CSI's shoulder.

Nick leans down and puts his mouth closer to her ear, "I'll find out who did this Voletta. I'll find them and put them away for a long time." He brushes her thin white hair back, wipes a tear from his eye and exits the morgue to find Grissom.

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"Nick!" Warrick's voice comes from down the hall behind Stokes.

"What's the news Warrick? Anything helpful yet?"

"You remember that foot print we lifted from the floor by the backdoor?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it is a woman's size 6. From the points of pressure we can tell that she is about 5 foot 4. What about you?" Warrick looks at Nick.

"I looked into her family and she doesn't have much. Poor woman, she lived all by herself for 15 years after her husband died and I know for a fact that hardly anyone comes and visits her. She used to bring me a batch of cookies every Christmas. I don't even know how she was able to make them, her hands shook so bad. I never really talked to her though, I never got to know her." Nick bows his head and sniffles.

"Hey, you can't blame yourself for this. You didn't put that bullet into her side. If anything you made her last little bit of life worthwhile."

Warrick notices Grissom walking toward them carrying a folder. "The marks on the bullet match the marks on bullets from two shootings in the past month. One was an elderly woman in Southern California and the other was the murder of a 54 year old man in Southern Nevada." His voice was excited at the thought that they had gotten a huge break in the case.

"Why shoot 2 elderly people and then one middle aged man? That doesn't make any sense." Warrick wonders out loud, looking to his co-workers for suggestions.

"Davis Martin, the middle aged man, was in the later stages of Parkinson's. His doctors gave him a grim prognosis." A realization hits Nick like a ton of bricks, "Voletta had Parkinson's" he looks to Grissom.

"The other victim also suffered from Parkinson's. Gentlemen, we just found our link. Now all we have to do is find out who."

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	2. Susan Walters

Nick bursts into the lab where Grissom and Warrick are looking over the fiber evidence from the case. "Bobby just matched the bullet marks to a gun one of Brass's guys found in the bushes behind a house 4 blocks from Voletta's house!" He exclaims with a grin, "and it's registered!"

Warrick and Gil's eyes widen with surprise. "Are you serious?" Warrick asks.

"Yep, to a Ms. Susan Walters." Nick's excitement is spilling over to his co-workers. "Brass called the police in the town given on the registration application and they said that she was reported missing by her daughter about a month ago."

"Missing? You think she was kidnaped or murdered and then someone took her gun?" Warrick rubbed the stubble on his chin while thinking about the different scenarios.

"I think she is the one pulling the trigger." Nick replies drawing a shocked look from Warrick. Grissom leans forward and looks at Nick attentively, waiting for the rest of his hypothesis. "She unloaded her bank accounts and was reported to have boarded a bus out of town. Her daughter said that she didn't see her mom just picking up and leaving, but the cops haven't pushed the case very hard because they figured she wanted to be gone. She fits the description of the shooter from all three cases and get this, she used to work in a clinic that specialized in the care and treatment of Parkinson's patients. I think she is going on some kind of Angel of Mercy killing spree."

"Well, she has gotten rid of her weapon, so she is either feeling guilty or she knows that it will be traced." Gil informs them. "We need to find her soon, she could be moving on to other methods to carry out her murders."

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Grissom is standing next to Nick in the break room when his cell phone rings. He answers it but has to plug his free ear to hear Brass's words. Nick shoots a glare at Greg, who has a small radio turned up and is bobbing his head to the beat. He caught Nick's stare and turns the radio off as Gil turns back to face Nick.

"LVPD picked up Susan Walters driving down the interstate in a car she bought with cash from a used car dealership 3 days ago. They have her at the station, they are just waiting for one of us to get there to start questioning." Grissom explains.

"Great! Let's go Gris." Nick throws his bag of chips into the trash can and puts his jacket over his arm to prepare to leave.

"Nicky, you go ahead. You have this case covered, you don't need me there." Gil gives permission to Nick.

"Really?"

"Yeah, just don't let your personal connection get in the way of the evidence."

"I won't. Thanks Gris." Nick bolts out the door to the parking lot.

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"Where's Gil?" Brass asks Nick as he approaches the door to the interrogation room.

"He is letting me handle this one on my own." Nick replies with pride in his voice.

"I know you have a personal attachment to this, just remember, we don't know for sure if she is the shooter. She could just be a middle aged woman who's gun was stolen." Brass warned Stokes before they turned to enter the room where Ms. Walters sat twirling a piece of paper in her fingers.

"I know." Nick states as he turns the handle.

They each take their places at the table, Nick sitting across from her.

"Ms. Walters, I'm Detective Jim Brass and this is Nick Stokes from the Las Vegas Crime Lab. We want to ask you some questions, is that ok?"

"I guess so." She meekly replies.

"Ms. Walters, Why did you leave your home without telling anyone? Your daughter reported you missing not long after you left." Nick asks.

"I couldn't let her know why I was leaving. If I told her I was going, she would want to know why and she is too good a person to have that on her mind." Susan informs them.

Brass shifts his position in his chair, "why did you leave?"

Susan turns her gaze to the paper in her hands, "Do you know what it's like to have Parkinson's disease detective?"

Brass and Nick look at each other as Brass replies, "No, I don't."

"Well, you get tremors and you start to get slurred speech. You can't talk right and you can't even sign your own name." She says to Brass and Nick without looking up.

"With all due respect Ms. Walters, what does that have to do with you leaving your home?" Brass presses for information. Nick stares on, he knows what it has to do with it. He is just waiting to hear her say it.

"I worked for 10 years in that hell hole. I watched some of the sweetest and smartest people I have ever met fade away. They were miserable and they couldn't do anything about it."

"But you could, couldn't you Ms. Walters?" Nick snaps causing Susan to look up at him. "You could put them out of their misery. That is what you did for them isn't it?"

"I had to. I knew what they could become." She said with sadness in her words.

"How did you pick the people you killed?" Brass inquires.

"I didn't kill them, I saved them!" She said with great force.

"Ok, how did you pick who was going to be saved?" Nick took a gentle tone to calm her down.

"I saw so many people come to that damn clinic and get turned away because they didn't have enough money for treatment or care. People traveled from all over to come and see the specialist there, and then they would go home without any help. I sat at that reception desk and had to watch them leave." She started to tear up.

"So you tracked down a few of the people you saw get turned down at the clinic and decided that you could play God. " Nick's voice quickly turned from gentle to angered.

She didn't respond until Nick stood up to leave. "You were the one that kicked in the door weren't you?" She asks.

Nick's eyes widen and the question sinks into his mind. With a slight nod of his head he relies, "yes, I was."

She broke into a sob as Nick continues, "I was there as that woman bled all over the floor. You don't think that was painful for her?" His voice getting louder, almost becoming a yell. "She laid there for so long after you shot her, and she was in pain that whole time! She was all alone in the world and then you came and you shot her! She was in a coma for 2 days, so excuse me if I don't think that you saved her!" He slams the door to the room as he storms out into the hallway. He pounds his fist into the wall and kicks the bench by his feet. "SON OF A BITCH!" He screamed as he sat down on the bench with tears streaming down his cheeks.

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The day is chilly and bright. A fresh blanket of snow lay on the cold hard ground and on the bare branches of the trees in the cemetery.

Nick gets out of his SUV and retrieves the package from the back seat. As he walks up to the head stone marked 'Voletta Greenbow' he glances around at all the crisp white flakes around him.

He kneels down a few feet from her stone and says to her, "I am sorry that you had to go through it all alone Voletta. I am sorry that I didn't make the effort to ever thank you for the Christmas cookies you left me."

He places the box of fresh cookies on the ground in front of her head stone. "Merry Christmas Mrs. Greenbow."

His cell phone rings as he is walking back to his vehicle. "Yeah Gris, I'll meet you there. Sorry I am running late, there was something I had to do before shift today." He hangs up his phone and turns for one last look at the grave of his neighbor. "See you next year Voletta."

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The End


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